Commodity and Its Production

[the last donut of the night]

1) What is a commodity?

2) Communists frequently say that commodity production would be abolished in a socialist society. What exactly is commodity production and why is it negative? I guess this question links back to the first.

[Brother No. 1]

(1"A commodity is a product which may be sold to any purchaser, and when its owner sells it he loses ownership of it and the purchaser becomes the owner of the commodity, which he may resell, pledge or allow to rot. Do means of production come within this category? They obviously do not. In the first place, means of production are not 'sold' to any purchaser;.. they are only allocated by the state to its enterprises. In the second place, when transferring the means of production to any enterprise, the owner -- the state -- does not at all lose the ownership of them; on the contrary, it retains it fully. In the third place, directors of enterprises who receive means of production from the Soviet state, far from becoming their owners, are deemed to be agents of the state in the utilisation of the means of production in accordance with the plans established by the state.
It will be seen, then, that under our system means of production can certainly not be classed in the category of commodities".
(J. V. Stalin: "Economic Problems of Socialism in the USSR"; Moscow; 1952; p. 58).


(2
"The value of labour power is determined, as in the case of every other commodity, by the labour time necessary for the production, and consequently also for the reproduction, of this special article.. In other words, the value of labour power is the value of the means of subsistence necessary for the maintenance of the labourer... On the other hand, the number and extent of his so-called necessary wants, as also the modes of satisfying them,... depend... to a great extent on the degree of civilization of a country....In contradistinction therefore to the case of other commodities, there enters into the determination of the value of labour power a historical and moral element. Nevertheless, in a given country at a given period the average quantity of the means of subsistence necessary for the labourer is practically known...
The sum of the means of subsistence necessary for the production of labour power must include the means necessary for the labourer's substitutes, i.e., his children, in order that this race of peculiar commodity-owners may perpetuate its appearence in the market."
(K. Marx: "Capital", Volume 1; London; 1974; p. 167, 168).

In Capitalist socities the labourer must sell his labour power as a commodity to survive and 'live' since there are no other commodities s/he can sell since the worker will not have any other commodity to sell to the Capitalists. Its negativity is that not only do workers sell their labour power as commodities but their labour power is also bought and sold as commodites but in the market place the 'value' of the commodity changes for the socially nesscary amount of labour required for its production.



posted by W. B. Bland in Capitalist Restoridation of the Soviet union
"The value of labour power, according to Marx's analysis, is determined, like that of any other commodity, by the amount of socially necessary labour required for its production, i.e., by the value of the means of subsistence conventionally -- in a particular society at a particular time -- required for the maintenance of the worker and his dependents"




"In order that a man may be able to sell commodities other than labour power, he must of course have the means of production".
(K. Marx: ibid., Volume 1; p. 165).

As has been said in the first quote a commodity is a product that is bought and sold to a purchaser and the owner of this commodity loses its ownership while the prshaser gains it, hence the worker loses ownership of his labour power and the Capitalist gains ownership such as you sell, say, an Xbox 360 to someone you no longer have ownership over it but the purchaser now gains owership from this. This meaning the labourer no longer is in control of his own labour power and must work to survive since the labourer would not sell it if s/he had another commodity to sell. also Cultural relations have negative effects on the working class via commodities for, take this for example, since the US and israel have *somewhat* a cultral relation this helps promotes the selling and buying of commodities between the two states and cultural relations in cities, on the other hand, helps promotes the selling and buying of commodties from large corpoations who need more labour power or more "experienced" labour power.




posted by wikipedia

The 7 basic forms of commodity trade can be summarised as follows:

M-C (an act of purchase: a sum of money purchases a commodity)
C-M (an act of sale: a commodity is sold for money)
M-M' (a sum of money is lent out at interest to obtain more money, or, one currency or financial claim is traded for another)
C-C' (countertrade, in which a commodity trades directly for a different commodity, with money possibly being used as an accounting referent, for example, food for oil, or weapons for diamonds)
C-M-C' (a commodity is sold for money, which buys another, different commodity with an equal or higher value)
M-C-M' (money is used to buy a commodity which is resold to obtain a larger sum of money)
M-C...P...-C'-M' (money buys means of production (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Means_of_production) and labour power (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labour_power) used in production to create a new commodity, which is sold for more money than the original outlay).
its somewhat good of a wikipedia.

hope this helps you.